Monday, September 17, 2007

This is old news for those who are vigilant about right-to-life news. But it was powerfully affecting for me to discover, after Rachel and I won the ISI Honors Fellowships and spent a week in Quebec City.

A major theme of the conference in Quebec was what used to be known as "Quebec Exceptionalism" - the belief that God had Providentially arranged that French Canada would be established, so that the faith would be preserved in 'the eldest daughter of the Church' after the horrific French Revolution. And this faith-ordering-society lasted, quite strongly, until the 1960s. Too strongly, critics would say; and the reaction was extreme. As Alasdair MacIntyre explained to me in office hours (how amazing it is to be a Domer!), Quebec and Ireland are two of the most radically anti-clerical places in the world right now, thanks to a rebellion against their long history of Catholicism being closely intertwined with politics.

Enter this song. It topped the charts in Canada all summer, and very much looks like a lament for the virtuous past. Turns out the band is virulently pro-abortion. Yet even though I don't speak any French at all, I'm still haunted by it; both beautiful and tragic at the same time.